To continue the discussion on illicit sexual indulgence, whether homosexual or heteresexual, here is the last section of Part Two of the official C of E Homily entitled, " A Sermon Against Whoredom & Uncleanness."
[Whoredom (illicit sexual indulgence) & Adultery are here presented as sins abhored by God]. It is in three parts and was thus read/preached on three successive occasions.
If this kind of sermon were preached today in most churches, liberal or evangelical, I suspect that many people would walk out and much of the rest would give notice of leaving if it were to happen again. It gets too near to where we are sexually in the 21st century in the West.
"Moreover, in his Epistle to the Ephesians the blessed Apostle willeth us to be so pure and free from adultery, fornication, and all uncleanness, that we not once name them among us, as it becommeth saints; nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not comely; but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, saith he, that no whoremonger, either unclean person, or covetous person, which is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. And, that we should remember to be holy, pure, and free from all uncleanness, the holy Apostle calleth us saints, because we are sanctified and made holy in the blood of Christ through the Holy Ghost. Now, if we be saints, what have we to do with the manners of the heathen? St. Peter saith, As he which called you is holy, even so be ye holy also in all your conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy.
Hitherto have we heard how grievous a sin fornication and whoredom is, and how greatly God doth abhor it throughout the whole Scripture. How can it any otherwise be than a sin of most abomination, seeing it once may not be named among the Christians, much less it may in any point be committed? And surely, if we would weigh the greatness of this sin, and consider it in the right kind, we should find the sin of whoredom to be that most filthy lake, foul puddle, and stinking sink, whereinto all kinds of sins and evils flow, where also they have their resting place and abiding. For hath not the adulterer a pride in his whoredom? As the Wise Man saith: They are glad when they have done evil, and rejoice in things that are stark naught. Is not the adulterer also idle, and delighteth in no godly exercise, but only in that his most filthy and beastly pleasure? Is not his mind plucked and utterly drawn away from all virtuous studies and fruitful labours, and only given to carnal and fleshly imaginations? Doth not the whoremonger give his mind to gluttony, that he may be the more apt to serve his lusts and carnal pleasures? Doth not the adulterer give his mind to covetousness and to polling and pilling of other, that he may be the more able to maintain his harlots and whores, and to continue in his filthy and unlawful love? Swelleth he not also with envy against other, fearing that his prey should be allured and taken away from him? Again, is he not ireful, and replenished with wrath and displeasure, even against his best beloved, if at any time his beastly and devilish request be letted? What sin or kind of sin is it that is not joined with fornication and whoredom? It is a monster of many heads. It receiveth all kinds of vices, and refuseth all kinds of virtues. If one several sin bringeth damnation, what is to be thought of that sin which is accompanied with all evils, and hath waiting on it whatsoever is hateful to God, damnable to man, and pleasant to Satan?
Great is the damnation that hangeth over the heads of fornicators and adulterers. What shall I speak of other incommodities which issue and flow out of this stinking puddle of whoredom? Is not that treasure which before all other is most regarded of honest persons, the good fame and name of man and women, lost through whoredom? What patrimony (or livelihood), what substance, what goods, what riches doth whoredom shortly consume and bring to naught! What valiantness and strength is many times made weak and destroyed with whoredom! What wit is so fine, that it is not doted and defaced through whoredom! What beauty, although it were never so excellent, is not disfigured through whoredom! Is not whoredom an enemy to the pleasant flower of youth? and bringeth it not grey hairs and old age before the time? What gift of nature, although it were never so precious, is not corrupted with whoredom? Come not the French pocks, with other diverse diseases, of whoredom? Form whence come so many bastards and misbegotten children, to the high displeasure of God and dishonour of holy wedlock, but of whoredom? How many consume all their substance and goods, and at the last fall into such extreme poverty, that afterward they steal, and so are hanged, through whoredom! What contention and manslaughter cometh of whoredom! How many maidens be deflowered, how many wives corrupted, how many widows defiled, through whoredom! How much is the public and common weal impoverished and troubled through whoredom! How much is God's word contemned and depraved by whoredom and whoremongers!
Of this vice cometh a great part of the divorces which now a days be so commonly accustomed and used by men's private authority, to the great displeasure of God, and the breach of the most holy knot and bond of matrimony. For, when this most detestable sin is once crept into the breast of the adulterer, so that he is entangled with unlawful and unchaste love, straightways his true and lawful wife is despised; her presence is abhorred; her company stinketh and is loathsome; whatsoever she doeth is dispraised; there is no quietness in the house so long as she is in sight: therefore, to make short tale, must she away, for her husband can brook her no longer. Thus through whoredom is the honest and harmless wife put away, and an harlot received in her stead: and in like sort it happeneth many times in the wife towards her husband. O abomination! Christ our Saviour, very God and man, coming to restore the law of his heavenly Father unto the right sense, understanding, and meaning, among other things reformed the abuse of this law of God. For, whereas the Jews used, of a long sufferance, by custom, to put away their wives at their pleasure for every cause, Christ, correcting that evil custom, did teach that, if any man put away his wife, and marrieth another, for any cause except only for adultery (which then was death by the law), he was an adulterer; and forced also his wife, so divorced, to commit adultery, if she were joined to any other man; and the man also, so joined with her, to commit adultery. In what case then are those adulterers which for the love of an whore put away their true and lawful wife against all law, right, reason, and conscience? O damnable is the state wherein they stand! Swift destruction shall fall on them, if they repent not and amend not. For God will not ever suffer holy wedlock thus to be dishonoured, hated, and despised. He will once punish this fleshly and licentious manner of living, and cause that his holy ordinance shall be had in reverence and honour. For surely wedlock, as the Apostle saith, is honourable among all men, and the bed undefiled; but whoremongers and fornicators God will judge, that is to say, punish and condemn.
But to what purpose is this labour taken to describe and set forth the greatness of the sin of whoredom, and the incommodities that issue and flow out of it, seeing that breath and tongue shall sooner fail any man, than he shall or may be able to set it out according to the abomination and heinousness thereof? Notwithstanding, this is spoken to the intent that all men should flee whoredom, and live in the fear of God. God grant that it may not be spoken in vain!"
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon
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